Respect and detail were key to developing Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, says Level-5 CEO

Respect and attention to detail were the keys to developing Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch in collaboration with animation Studio Ghibli, Akihiro Hino, president and CEO of developer Level-5, told Game Informer.

Hino was impressed by Studio Ghibil's reverence for traditional animation, and the animation studio's respect for detail inspired the developers.

"As far as the graphics are concerned, in order to express a proper Ghibli world, we were constantly replaying and studying Ghibli's films over and over for comparison. We did test after test to get elements like the colorization, the way the characters' shadows are cast, and the finest details of the character motions down pat."

Hino also discusses the gameplay in Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, which he said features exploration like other games from the studio, and translating the look and feel of the venerated animation studio's work to a video game.

"The animated cutscenes are a selling point," he said. "but we tried our best to reproduce the look and feel of those scenes in the real-time graphics so that you would hardly be able to tell the difference between the two. You'll be able to adventure to your heart's content in a lovingly rendered cartoon world."